- Sunday, March 09, 2025
By: PTI
Activists, lawyers and politicians welcomed former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba’s acquittal in a Maoist link case and rued that the wheelchair-bound human rights defender had to endure the “torture” of being in jail since 2014.
The Bombay High Court on Friday (14) acquitted Saibaba and ordered his release from jail noting that the sanction order issued to prosecute him in the case under the stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was “bad in law and invalid”.
The high court’s Nagpur division bench of Justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare also allowed the appeal filed by Saibaba, currently lodged in Nagpur central prison, challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment.
Welcoming his release, academician Ashok Swain tweeted, “He was jailed almost as long (Narendra) Modi has been prime minister.”
90% physically disabled, wheelchair-bound Delhi University Prof G.N. Saibaba has been acquitted by the Bombay High Court. He was jailed, almost as long as Modi has been Prime Minister, on a false case of his links with Maoists.
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) October 14, 2022
Activist Kavita Krishnan congratulated Saibaba’s wife Vasantha and his lawyers for “winning his acquittal”. “This disabled human rights defender – proved innocent now – had to suffer what amounts to torture in prison for so long, damaging his health. Shame,” she tweeted.
Prof Sai Baba, welcome back to our midst friend. Congratulations to his wife Vasantha & his defence team that won his acquittal. This disabled human rights defender – proved innocent now – had to suffer what amounts to torture in prison for so long, damaging his health. Shame. pic.twitter.com/tMk8FQc1oG
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) October 14, 2022
Supreme Court lawyer and activist Indira Jaising took to Twitter to congratulate the legal team of Saibaba and expressed her “heartfelt tribute to Pandu Narote, his (Saibaba’s) co-accused who died in prison”.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that Saibaba “suffered immensely in prison for years because of UAPA and his loved ones had to watch helplessly”.
“UAPA is a monster created by the collaboration of BJP and Congress. Its victims are mostly innocent Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and dissenters. Only 3 per cent of accused have been convicted under UAPA, but innocent people arrested under it remain in jail for years.” he said in a series of tweets.
Prof Saibaba suffered immensely in prison for years because of UAPA & his loved ones had to watch helplessly. UAPA is a monster created by the collaboration of BJP & Congress. Its victims are mostly innocent Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis & dissenters. https://t.co/Io8YNTufN5
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) October 14, 2022
Only 3% of accused have been convicted under UAPA, but innocent people arrested under it remain in jail for years.
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) October 14, 2022
Disability rights activists also lauded the Bombay High Court’s decision to acquit Saibaba in the case. Arman Ali, the executive director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, said, “It’s a very good order.”
“We were all saddened and alarmed by the treatment he was meted by being kept in a solitary cell. Being a person with a disability, he has the right to certain accommodations even in prison,” he said.
The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) said as it has been consistently raising the issue of non-provision of “reasonable accommodation” as well as several rights to a prisoner with a disability as mandated by various laws – both national and international – covenants and rules.
Great news! Professor GN Saibaba, acquitted of all charges by the Nagpur HC. To be released forthwith. Despite being disabled & in poor health, he was kept in the 'Anda cell' in jail
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) October 14, 2022
Under both the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the right to the inherent dignity of a person is recognised as a guiding principle. Persons with disabilities are given the right to access justice, which includes prisoners with disabilities as well, the NPRD said in a statement.
“In spite of repeated appeals by human rights organisations, democratic-minded people and disability rights organisations, Saibaba was denied bail even on medical grounds, though his health was deteriorating due to 19 medical conditions, some of them life-threatening,” it said.
In March 2017, a sessions court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district convicted Saibaba and others, including a journalist and a JNU student of alleged Maoist links and of indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country.
Overturning the sessions court judgment, the Bombay High Court noted that the trial court proceedings were “null and void” in absence of a valid sanction under the UAPA and hence the judgment of the trial court was liable to be set aside and quashed.
It held that terrorism poses an ominous threat to national security and vile and abhorrent acts of terror do evoke collective societal anger and anguish.
“While the war against terror must be waged by the state with unwavering resolve and every legitimate weapon in the armoury must be deployed in the fight against terror, a civil democratic society can ill afford sacrificing the procedural safeguards legislatively provided, and which is an integral facet of the due process of law, at the altar of perceived peril to national security,” the high court said.
